Rodents in headliners/firewall

Hi everyone. I purchased a 2014 jsw mk6 6mt in September. It was a post fix unit that sat somewhere for a bit. I noticed some evidence of rodents making a few holes in the firewall liner along the back of the engine bay but wasn't too bad and no rodents. I popped the hood today and noticed new holes in the firewall that lines the hood. An acorn fell out. Prob some Chipmunks got in there.
What's my best recourse here. Pull and replace that liner? Thoughts?
TIA.

We have some damage in my son's GTI hood liner too! No sign of the pests other than the chewed up materials all over the engine cover.

Is there a good deterrent to keep them away?

If it were my problem , Id put the vehicle into garage and install a ball bearing mouse trap....... otherwise known as a Tom cat

I put a couple blocks of Tomcat mouse bait in each car and i can tell they have been nibbled.

PB_NB said:

We have some damage in my son's GTI hood liner too! No sign of the pests other than the chewed up materials all over the engine cover.

Is there a good deterrent to keep them away?

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Any ideas on repairing the existing damage?

Some kind of heat tape?

Maybe foil HVAC tape would work?

I removed the hood liner and engine cover from mine due to rodent damage. That seemed to do the trick.

I would thoroughly check wires and hoses. I experienced major damage from rodents, and only the garage and two cats took care of the problem...

turbobrick240 said:

I removed the hood liner and engine cover from mine due to rodent damage. That seemed to do the trick.

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Was considering that but I was concerned about possible premature hood wear due to the extra heat.

Dynomat to replace the hood liner. Not sure of the spelling, but it is an adhesive backed insulator. Could be tricky to install.

JB05 said:

Dynomat to replace the hood liner. Not sure of the spelling, but it is an adhesive backed insulator. Could be tricky to install.

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I found someone who had a similar problem on a BMW and got an aftermarket replacement hood liner for $60. Said it was easy to install. I'm leaning toward removing it all this weeend and start searching for a replacement.

Don't forget to place some of the green rodent party food by the cabin air filter. I have found that to be an extremely popular place for those pesky rodents to build nests. I've also found them damaging the underside of winter type engine air filters, so every fall I put 1/2 block in the air filter box, and the other half by the cabin air filter in all my cars.

And I've removed the underhood liners. I don't think they'll affect the paint here in NH, but I admit it is a serious concern in hotter climes. For example, in Phoenix where I'm originally from, it would be a problem. But then, mice aren't usually a problem there. Just the blinkin' rabbits. (another long story..)


To get rid of them, the green stuff won't affect chipmunks. Either they can regurgitate (which mice and rats cannot) or they just burn through it so fast it doesn't matter. Best I've found is separate trapping activities or cats.

Good luck and cheers,

PH

Drclaw said:

Hi everyone. I purchased a 2014 jsw mk6 6mt in September. It was a post fix unit that sat somewhere for a bit. I noticed some evidence of rodents making a few holes in the firewall liner along the back of the engine bay but wasn't too bad and no rodents. I popped the hood today and noticed new holes in the firewall that lines the hood. An acorn fell out. Prob some Chipmunks got in there.
What's my best recourse here. Pull and replace that liner? Thoughts?
TIA.

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Why bother?

Drclaw said:

Hi everyone. I purchased a 2014 jsw mk6 6mt in September. It was a post fix unit that sat somewhere for a bit. I noticed some evidence of rodents making a few holes in the firewall liner along the back of the engine bay but wasn't too bad and no rodents. I popped the hood today and noticed new holes in the firewall that lines the hood. An acorn fell out. Prob some Chipmunks got in there.
What's my best recourse here. Pull and replace that liner? Thoughts?
TIA.

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Get a cat.

Scented clothes dryer sheets such as "Bounce" work quite well to repel rodents. I use them in off season storage of our camper trailer and several snowmobiles.
Tom Cat (and other similar types of bars or sticks) poison works well to kill rodents but also attracts them to it as food source, so I try to place that away from where I'm trying to keep them away from. Don't use the packs of pellet type, they just haul it away and and hoard it.

I never had any luck with dryer sheets or bars of soap, I tried both in my F250 and the mice would just chew the soap. I had great luck using peppermint oil in an old medication bottle with wooden q-tips sticking through a hole in the lid to act as a wick. That was the most effective natural solution I found that didn't kill the rodents.

I like the dog hair idea.